The main course? The Legion versus the Dominators with a side dish of torture... we look at Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #27 & 28

 

Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #27

This is the first page of this book... it should be the cover:

 

The Dominion invasion has begun. Last issue, a big robot released something red into the air and Brainiac 5 let the Legion know that they were already defeated. Other stuff is going on but who cares... let's get into the action.

This issue is brought to you by writer Mark Waid, penciller Barry Kitson, and inker Mick Gray. Three issues in a row - congrats!

We begin on the Dominion Homeworld, where two of the leaders are happily providing exposition and bringing us up to speed. It was the A.I. Virus that they released in the red cloud last issue and all technology is now under their control. Everyone on Earth is panicking because there's no more food and the Dominators are confident they've already won the war.

The one with the biggest disk on his head (so the leader) turns and we see that Sun Boy and his team are being held captive. The Dominators have scraped their DNA, except for Sun Boy's, and used it to make super-powered soldiers to go against the Legion and the Wanderers.

From behind him enters one of those soldiers, a muscle-bound Dominator who they say is the smallest of the bunch. The Dominion leader leaves the soldier in the room - Sun Boy's in big trouble.

Our roll call page is the biggest yet and we get both the Wanderers and the Legion introduced. I'm just going to assume that the entire Legion is going to get involved in this battle and not just the seven they identify... is it bad that this is one of my biggest longtime gripes about this series? If you're going to have a roll call page, you have to show everyone who's actually going to be in the book... right?

In the U.P. Headquarters, we learn that everything on Earth is under Dominator control. No one can leave the planet, all transportation is down, and they're back to using primitive guns. Why would they even have these? It would be like a police force today pulling out swords and shields.

Cosmic Boy realizes that he has to save the delegates and get them off Earth for help but Mekt Ranzz, the leader of the Wanderers, doesn't trust them and leaves to go and find Lightning Lad. Rokk reminds them they can't use their Flight Rings to communicate anymore because they could go under Dominator control. Does this mean that the Dominators are smarter than Brainiac 5 because they can control his tech?

Wait... so the tech doesn't get taken over unless they're used? That's an interesting twist.

But the Dominator soldiers are already inside the U.P. HQ and have started throwing delegates out the windows. Invisible Kid instinctively flies up to save them and his Flight Ring explodes. Cham changes into a huge bug, flies to save him, and one of the Wanderers, Kormak, stems the bleeding. He's drawn like Lyle just lost his arm... that was very unexpected.

As bug-Cham flies Cosmic Boy up to save more of the delegates, Brainiac 5 is working on a transmatter unit in the middle of a forest. Plant Kid is growing more and more plants to keep them hidden. There's also another Coluan here but I have no idea why, or where he came from. But let's keep going - no point in slowing down and having anything make any sense, right?

Remember many columns ago when they revealed that the Legionnaire with the alien stuck on her back could actually communicate with her friends and her friends' friends through said alien? Her name is Theena, which I'm hoping they mentioned before but I have no memory of it. Anyway, Karate Kid and Polar Boy are trying to get her to figure out how the rest of the two teams are doing. She's tired, but she pushes herself to get information.

We also learn that Polar Boy and Jeyra are together, so good for him. Glad he's finally dating in one of the versions of the Legion... even if he's dating a murderous psychopath. And yes, I assume we're going to completely ignore she's a murderer when all is said and done.

Star Boy's group is in Cairo, where Timber Wolf is gravely wounded. Supergirl is fighting in MegaTokyo but Ultra Boy is down. Light Lass and Shadow Lass are searching for Saturn Girl in Londinium. Phantom Girl and a Wanderer team (nope, no point in naming them for Polar Boy) are searching for something in what's left of the Legion HQ.

To save time, we just see Cham flying the delegates to Brainy's location. Glad the attackers wouldn't have noticed this. Or he and Cosmic Boy were able to defeat all the Dominators to rescue them. They activate the transmatter gate but there's a problem - the other Coluan didn't do his job properly.

Which means, of course, that the Dominators pinpoint where it is and send a group of attack troops to the location. A flying fairy (seriously, no other idea how to describe her and we've never seen her before) spots them and flies back to let Cosmic Boy know.

Lightning Lad and Mekt are there to protect them (so I guess they found each other) and they start blasting away at the Dominators. They have a nice heart-to-heart as they fry them (Legion code against killing is definitely gone) and Mekt reveals that he's not suicidal, as Ayla claimed before. He's scared he's going to get the Wanderers killed and he doesn't want to die either.

Since the A.I. virus got a hold of the transmatter gate because of the other Coluan's incompetence, some delegates die when they try to go through... maybe Cosmic Boy shouldn't have sent them. Let's hope Saturn Girl's mom wasn't one of them.

The Dominator soldiers have gotten closer, pushing Mekt back but not Garth, who's circled around back. Cosmic Boy uses his powers to push the soldiers back while the rest head for high ground to get teleported out by the White Witch.

But Cosmic Boy doesn't make it back. He's been grabbed by the invading army.

I don't think they care if the story makes sense anymore, or if readers can figure anything out. It's exciting and confusing at the same time. We're back to the Abnett and Lanning style of Legion comics. Everything looks good, the story moves at a brisk pace, and if you think for more than a few seconds about what's happening, the whole thing falls apart.

The difference here is that they're no even trying to let the readers understand who anyone is or what they can do. I long for the Reboot days when they'd add captions with names and descriptions. This isn't just writing for a trade. This is just not caring.

For the final few pages, we get a Dave Cockrum tribute. Sadly, he passed away in 2006 and they wanted to show just how important he was to the Legion. They put some Cockrum art within the mini-story as Legionnaires, wearing their Cockrum-designed costumes, explain what he brought to the book and how it ended up elevating the Legion to great popularity in the 1970's.

To no surprise, the Cockrum panels look better than anything drawn for the tribute.

 

Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #28

We're floating in space. Dream Boy is dreaming and Dream Girl has arrived to explain something to him. She criticizes his choice of pants (really?) and then tells him to look around the void of space. This is the precognitive vision. And his choices might just save the universe.

Okay, so this means that Brainiac 5 is not hallucinating and Dream Girl is back as a ghost. And her new power is to communicate to people in dreams.

I'm also wondering why they drew Dream Boy so he looks like Dream Girl's relative. Same white hair. Same eye color. Same face shape. is there something else we're supposed to know about them?

Back to the roll call page, which is now just pictures of the Legion and the Wanderers, but with no identifiers. And Mon-El is a Wanderer. As is the fairy girl I couldn't identify last issue.

Jimmy Palmiotti has stepped in to help the creative team, joining Gray on inks. I've always been curious as to what happens when you have two (or more) inkers working on a book. Does one ink characters and the other backgrounds? Do they split the pages? Anyone have any idea?

We also get the answer to something I asked about last column. Saturn Girl (I guess they found her in Londinium) switches from talking to Mon-El, convincing him to keep searching for Cosmic Boy, to Brainiac 5, and requesting they get more of the lead poison antidote. It's actually a little unnerving to see her talk about Mon-El as if he's not standing right beside her.

I also am not entirely sure why finding Cosmic Boy, even when they know he's being held by the Dominators, is more important that anything else. Oh wait... he's the greatest leader ever.

We get the recap of what's happening so far - the Dominators control every lab and are beating back the Legion at every turn. Millions of Earthlings are starving to death. Actually, if they can't get clean drinking water, they're dehydrating to death.

Somewhere else, Shadow Lass and Polar Boy are fighting over who is responsible for everything going badly. Projectra doesn't care about their petty argument - Timber Wolf is still bleeding out and they need Shadow Lass to keep them hidden.

As a Wanderer who looks like he's wearing half of Spider-Man's black costume is rude to Projectra, a huge Dominator robot smashes through the wall. It wants to exterminate everyone. Ultra Boy flies through the robot, destroying it, and collapses, re-injuring himself. Since he couldn't use his Flight Ring, and didn't switch from super-speed to invulnerability fast enough, he's back down for the count.

Was this the first good thing Ultra Boy has done in this entire series? It took over two years for him to do something heroic? Wow.

At what used to be Legion HQ, Phantom Girl is searching for something while arguing with two more Wanderers. One looks like a dinosaur and the other actually gets a name - Physo. No idea what he can do, but that's been how this whole story has gone. They talk about the plan - in one hour, they all assemble at one point for a last battle. Physo points out how stupid this plan is (can't say I disagree) as Phantom Girl finds what she's looking for. I have no idea how she could be able to look through rubble. It would make sense if she, say, phased into the room, or into the chamber, and saw it. I guess this is another aspect of her power we didn't know about before.

We move to Paris, and to a Dominator Detention Cell, where Triplicate Girl watches as the Dominators torture someone, tears flowing down her cheeks. When did she get captured? The other Wanderers have given up, knowing they're defeated. One reminds her that they can relax - they won't be tortured. "He'll break before they take a crack at us," he says.

And we see it's Cosmic Boy suffering, shirt ripped open, lashes all over his face and chest. They want to know where his teammates are going to rendezvous. But Rokk refuses to answer, saying there is no plan. One pulls out a bloody knife and goes back to work. How do the Dominators know there is a plan for the entire Legion to come together? If Rokk hasn't told them anything, shouldn't their questions be more open-ended?

Next, the Dominators escort Triplicate Girl into the torture chamber. Cosmic Boy tells her not to say anything, no matter what they do to him. But they're not going to torture him. They're going to torture Luornu.

Using specially-designed gauntlets, they force her to split into three, but remain connected. So she's in unimaginable pain, unable to separate. They ask Cosmic Boy again - where is the rendezvous? The Dominator breaks her arm, but he won't speak.

Finally, Luornu herself breaks and reveals that the Legion is meeting under the Metrosouth Powersphere. And that they're meeting in seven minutes. Cosmic Boy yells at her, angry he went through the torture for nothing. But the one Luornu personality couldn't handle the pain, not wanting to let her other selves die. The Wanderers start yelling at her too.

We see the Legion and the Wanderers gather, heading to the location. The Dominators have given the orders - when they emerge through the teleportation gate, they must start firing immediately.

At the gathering, Invisible Kid shows off his new, alien arm. Cham feels optimistic. A transmatter gate appears and they think it's part of the plan. But the Dominator soldiers emerge and the Legionnaires know it's a trap.

But it's a Legion trap. Triplicate Girl reveals she told them exactly what Cosmic Boy wanted her to. The transmatter gate just opened a path from Earth to their homeworld. And who's flying through? Ultra Boy (I guess he's healed now), Supergirl, and Mon-El.

Supergirl takes over the communicator and lets them know they're pulled the shock troops back and they're secured the gate. They open another one to free everyone in the detention center. When one Wanderer turns back to get Cosmic Boy, we see he's already standing and has used his powers to, I'm guessing, kill his torturers.

They leave Triplicate Girl there and tell her to shut down the detention center and wipe out as many robots as they can. As she cries, Cosmic Boy tells her that he'll be okay and that, after losing the Earth, this was the only option left.

The entire Legion and the Wanderers have headed to the Dominator homeworld to take the over their planet.

To be continued...

Okay, so I'll take it back... maybe Cosmic Boy is the greatest leader ever. Of course, if he had the plan to be tortured and give bad intel to the Dominators, he didn't tell Saturn Girl, Brainiac 5, or anyone else because they wouldn't have wanted Mon-El to search for him.

I know that I sound like a broken record here, because I'm going to basically say the exact same thing I said last week. And for the previous issue. As entertaining as the story is, and I always love watching the Dominators get destroyed, nothing makes any sense at all. Here are just a few of my questions:

• Would it have been so hard to just have little text boxes actually telling us who these Wanderers are?
• Does Ultra Boy heal when he turns invulnerable? That would explain why he was suddenly back in action at the end.
• Can Phantom Girl see through things?
• Is anyone trying to help Timber Wolf? He's been bleeding for a while and, with no medical facilities, he's gotta be dead soon.
• Why did Mekt and Lightning Lad just disappear?
• If the A.I. virus can take over technology and turn them into bombs (like what they did with Invisible Kid's Flight Ring), why aren't they just blowing up every computer in every home? I mean, they could literally wipe out the planet in five seconds. Isn't that the goal?
• Also, what element in the Flight Ring can explode? And if there is something that can explode, why would anyone wear them?
• Why did they copy the super powers from Sun Boy's team and never use those abilities?
• Am I fairly certain I've spent more time thinking about whether this plot makes any sense than anyone on the creative team or editorial?

Please come back next week for, hopefully, the conclusion of this exciting mess.

 

Our next Legionnaire in the spotlight... XS!!

 

I figure we should stick with Jeff Moy's take on the character since he co-created her.

As I read over the Reboot Legion, writing these columns, there were a few things that I loved more than anything else. One of those things were the new characters that became Legionnaires. And my favorite among those was XS.

Jenni Ognats, the daughter of Dawn Allen and granddaughter of Barry Allen, was experimented on by Dominators to see if they could jump start her latent super powers and turn her into a speedster. That worked and she and her cousin, who is better known as Impulse, became important heroes in the DCU.

But while Impulse is a mainstay of 21st Century DC Comics, post-reboot XS has just kinda moved into the background... with many other Legionnaires. It seems like a horrible waste of such a good character.

Why did I like XS so much? The first and best thing about her was that she was written like a teenager. She was shy, scared to do anything, and eventually found her footing with the team. She had unrequited crushes and bonded closely with her best friends. She had unbridled excitement and energy (kinda matching the powers) and her optimism was infectious.

She also seemed more "real" than a lot of the other Legionnaires. She was afraid. She made mistakes. She learned and got better. This is wild speculation, but I'd guess that she was directly based on someone one of the writers knew.

While they were ruining some other Legionnaires... cough... Ultra Boy... cough... they had a great handle on XS and a few more we'll be discussing in the coming weeks. XS stood out in so many great ways during this run.

I have no idea why she got moved to the background once Abnett and Lanning took over, especially since she got a costume redesign and actually looked a little more futuristic. But she did. She suffered from not being one of their favorites.

I also think she was the DC Legacy character for the Legion. I know it's not written in stone, but I think there should be some kind of rule that every super team in the DCU must have a speedster. It's like there need to be mutants everywhere in Marvel.

If there was one Legionnaire introduced during the Reboot Legion to be a part of a new regular team, it should be XS. She's actually appeared on live action television so is probably better known than a lot of other heroes. I think it's a no-brainer, actually.

 

What do you think of these issues? Or of XS? Please share your thoughts either here or on Reddit.

Thanks for reading and we'll see you next week for more Threeboot action!